Phones are critical parts of our day-to-day work, serving as communication devices and mobile workstations during the day. According to research firm Dscout, Americans touch their cell phones 2,617 times a day. This list of helpful nonprofit apps will hopefully guide some of your mobile touches to more efficient and smarter activities that support your organization.
Nonprofit Apps for Events
1. Eventbrite app
What is it: Eventbrite.com allows you to create events for anything you want, and the app then gives you an event management interface to check in guests.
How to use it for good: Create a main EventBrite account for your company, and use the app to better utilize volunteers for events. The app also allows you to save additional info for attendees as well as day-of registration. So when that line builds up at your next event, imagine what 10 volunteers with the app on their phone could do…
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
2. Paypal app
What is it: Paypal.com has an app that lets you process payments on the spot, and you can order a credit card swipe that can be added to your phone.
How to use it for good: Have staff/volunteers floating around at your events with the Paypal app — at the moment there is a call to action to give, removing friction in the giving process can mean the difference of a lot of money. Mobile raffle ticket sales can also be done easily this way, and centrally tracked at events.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
3. CamCard
What is it: CamCard is a business card scanning and reader tool.
How to use it for good: Use this app at your next nonprofit conference/event and make sure your staff is using it, too. The app allows you to take notes and then go online to export the machine read info into contacts, that can then be imported to a CRM near you.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
4. Ink Cards
What is it: Ink Cards is an app that allows you to send customized postcards to people with a picture.
How to use it for good: While Ink Cards is mostly used for thank you cards around weddings and babies, the app is actually super flexible. Imagine sending customized follow-up notes with pictures of your impact to people that you meet or are even thinking of. Addresses, custom cards, and contacts can be centrally managed through an online portal. Next time you’re traveling back from a meeting, use that time to send a message that you know your supporters will read.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
Nonprofit Apps for Productivity
5. Asana app
What is it: Asana.com is an awesome task management tool that has an app that lets you stay on top of the work your team is doing.
How to use it for good: Asana is one of our favorite and most fundamental nonprofit apps for productivity. Once all of your departments are using the tool, the app becomes a lot more powerful for task accounting. The app can also be used to manage volunteers if the work requires more project management.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
6. WhatsApp
What is it: WhatsApp is an encrypted messaging app that works with text and over internet, now owned by Facebook.
How to use it for good: If you are working with people from varying backgrounds and across borders, this is the go-to app for communication. Your team/volunteers are probably already using this to talk with stakeholders, so try to formalize how groups are used and managed across the organization.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
7. Google Keep
What is it: Google Keep is Google’s answer to Evernote and other note taking apps. Nice if you already use Google Apps for your organization, and free for nonprofits: google.com/nonprofits.
How to use it for good: Use it to take notes at conferences or to record stories with pics/video/text while in the field. The app keeps the notes private to your system or network. When you return to the office, you can access all of your notes online.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
8. Evernote
What is it: Evernote is a leading note taking tool.
How to use it for good: Record information and stories from stakeholders in the field. Use Evernote for meeting notes and to follow-up afterwards. This is much safer than that notebook with critical notes in it — even if you don’t want to ditch the notebook, you can take a picture of your notes after each meeting to better document information and ideas.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
9. Zoom app
What is it: Zoom is a leading video conferencing app that deals with buffering with minimal loss to connection.
How to use it for good: The app lets you make video calls in the field and while on the move. You can also use it to record video walkthroughs during trainings or orientations. Whole Whale often records our trainings with clients, who then use these Zoom recordings for capacity building efforts and onboarding. There is also the possibility of doing webinars with the phone in the case of hard-to-reach speakers.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
10. Slack app
What is it: Slack is a closed network communication tool for teams.
How to use it for good: Use the app to work with volunteers and staff while in the field. Better than email, the shared communications let everyone see the status of work, and conversation threads are much more fluid. The Whole Whale team also uses channels like #Impact to share wins we have with clients, which helps connect everyone to our mission.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
Education Apps for Social Impact
11. Google Analytics app
What is it: Google.com/analytics has poured significant resources into making the mobile app for this awesome, free, web analytics tool.
How to use it for good: Create dashboards that show how people are using your educational resources, to track volunteer registration, or to analyze donation trends. The real-time features of the app can show you if you have a surge of interest that might require attention.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
12. Headspace
What is it: Headspace is a meditation app.
How to use it for good: A clear mind will help you do more good, especially if your team deals with emotionally intense stakeholders or subject matter. The data have shown that even 10 minutes can have a huge impact on productivity.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
13. Pocket Casts
What is it: Pocket Casts is a podcast app.
How to use it for good: The app trims silences from your podcast audio, saving you seconds, minutes, hours, or months if you are an extreme listener. Save inspirational and educational podcasts like (warning, shameless plug coming) Using the Whole Whale: Tech & tactics for social impact.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
Other Cool Tools!
14. Brave mobile browser
What is it: Brave is a free mobile browser that stops ads, removes tracking, and increases site load time.
How to use it for good: Increase the speed that you browse the internet, and stop giving away your data to companies that don’t respect it.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
15. Charity Miles
What is it: Charity Miles is an exercise app that donates money to select nonprofits based on how far you run, walk, or bike.
How to use it for good: Create a group for your staff and have a fun competition to raise money for a great cause. Incentivize the team by creating a matching program.
Download: Google Play Store | iTunes Store
So, go forth and increase impact via mobile! These days there are countless nonprofit apps available to help your organization achieve its mission — these are our favorites, but if you have other top nonprofit apps make sure to tweet us @WholeWhale and tell us what they are!